Why I Won't Use The Capital One Travel Portal Ever Again!

 

One of the great benefits of Capital One Venture and Venture X cards are that you can erase your travel purchases with Capital One points. This benefit makes the Venture X and Venture card a popular flexible choice. 

You just make the purchase using your Capital One credit card and then erase. Any travel purchase is eligible like airbnb, vrbo, amusement park tickets, tours booked on viator and much more. No blackout dates, no transferring points, no waiting, easy. 

The second way you can use your Capital One points is to transfer your points to dozens of airlines at 1:1. So if you spot an award ticket on an airline for 25,000 points, you can transfer your points to that airline instantly and use the points to buy your ticket. Again, easy. 

Sometimes you can even get a better value out of your points this way to depending on how many points you need.

The third way you can use your points is in the Capital One Travel Portal. 

The portal uses the third party platform Hopper similar to Expedia to find flights and hotels. Then each flight or hotel is offered at 1:1 for Capital One points. There is no discount like what's offered through the Chase Travel Portal is you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve credit cards. The benefit to booking through the travel portal is that taxes and fees are included. Sometimes when you look at award tickets, the fuel charges are outrageous. 

Not so with the Capital One travel portal, those fees are included in the price. And it looks like you bought the ticket so you earn award miles on the flight or at the hotel. 

However, be warned. The portal will often offer you most basic economy ticket it can find. Cheap, yes. But you may not be able to check or carry on luggage, choose your seat or make any changes. And if there is a change in your flight, Capital One is very good at notifying you, but does not have any authority to change or refund flights without the airline's permission or change code. 

Believe it or not, sometimes getting that permission or change code can be a headache for Capital One and then for you. It can be a very long and frustrating process. Also while you are traveling, Capital One cannot help you rebook your flight or deal with travel changes like if you had booked straight from the airline. 

Something to keep in mind. I love maximizing my points, but sometimes it may not be worth the headache. 

if you are interested in the Capital One Venture X credit card, use my referral link. Right now, you can get a bonus 75,000 points with a $4,000 minimum spend. 75,000 points are 1:1 if you transfer them to airlines or hotels and worth $750 if you cash them in for FREE travel. 

You can check out my trick on how to reach the maximum spend without spending $4,000 right here.